Technical Filed
The present disclosure relates to surgical instrumentation for performing a surgical procedure. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to circular stapling instruments.
Background of Related Art
Circular staplers are known, as are their use in closed procedures, i.e., endoscopic, laparoscopic or through natural body orifices. Typically the circular staplers include a cartridge assembly on a distal end of an elongate body. The cartridge assembly includes a mechanism for forming staples and a knife for cutting the stapled tissue. Actuation of the cartridge assembly may be performed by a manually operated trigger or a powered drive assembly. Generally, both the actuation of the staple forming mechanism and the advancement of the knife occur at the same time, i.e., simultaneously.
Circular staplers which include an anvil assembly having a tilt-able anvil head are well known in the art. In some known circular staplers, tilting anvil mechanisms are spring loaded to tilt to a maximum angle allowed by the circular stapler and/or anvil geometry. Tilting the anvil head to its maximum angle facilitates pulling the anvil head through an anastomosis ring.
In some instances, however, it may be necessary to provide a tilt mechanism that can provide a greater tilting force than the biasing force generated by the spring loading to tilt the anvil head or maintain the anvil head in the tilted condition.